UPDATE 12/11: Ennio Morricone has since disputed these claims, and announced plans to sue Playboy Germany.
Ennio Morricone might be one of the most famed composers in all of film history, but that hasn’t stopped him from hitting out at acclaimed director Quentin Tarantino in a new interview.
Back in 2015, Quentin Tarantino tapped Ennio Morricone to compose the music for his film The Hateful Eight. As it turned out, this was something of a smart career move for Morricone, who happened to take home his first Academy Award in the process.
However, in a new interview with the German edition of Playboy (via Variety), Morricone has savaged the film director, criticising his “chaotic” style, and referring to him as a thieving “cretin”.
“(Tarantino) is absolutely chaotic,” Morricone began. “He talks without thinking, he does everything at the last minute. He has no idea.”
“He calls up out of the blue and wants a complete score in just a few days. That’s not possible. It makes me so mad,” he continued. “I’m not going to put up with this. And I told him so last time.”
“The man is a cretin. He only steals from others and puts stuff back together again. There’s nothing original about that. That doesn’t make him a director,” Morricone stated. “He is nothing compared with the Hollywood greats, such as John Huston, Alfred Hitchcock or Billy Wilder. They had class. Tarantino simply recooks old dishes.”
Of course, while Quentin Tarantino has been characterised as being rather difficult to work with, it’s not quite clear what exactly tipped Morricone over the edge.
Although Ennio Morricone was originally on Tarantino’s wish-list to compose the score for 2009’s Inglourious Basterds, the director had previously used Morricone’s music for a number of his films, including Kill Bill, and Death Proof, while some of Morricone’s work would also appear in Django Unchained.
While we’re not too sure what Quentin Tarantino has to say about this, we’re pretty certain that Ennio Morricone won’t be composing the music for Tarantino’s upcoming film, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.
Check out Ennio Morricone’s score from The Hateful Eight:
